Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1887-12-10

4 OF the cab; his next 20 cover his face with hts
| hands SO ne sat, while the cabman toasted the
publican, and the publican toasted the cabman,
and both reviewed the affairs OF the nation; so be
still sat. when his master condescended to return,
Lynedoch Place: but even so sitting, as he passed
the end Of his fathers street, he took one glance
| nom between shielding fingers and beheld q doc
1 tors carriage at the door.
"Well, Just So" thought he; an have killed my
| father! And this is Christmas day!
| II Mr.. Nicholson died, IL was down this same
road he must journey 10 the grave; and down this
| same road, on the same Grand his wife had pre-
coded him years before; and many other leading
OF the end And now. IN that fresty. ii.smeIlipg.
straw-carpeted, and ragged-cushioned cab, with
his breath congealing on the glasses, where else
The thought stirred his imagination, which be-
gan TO manufacture many thousand pictures,
bright and 1eeting like the shapes IN a kaleido-
forted, sliding In the gutter; and, again, a little
wobegone, bored urchn tricked forth In Grape and
weepers, descending this same hill at the foots
pace OF mourning coaches, his mothers body just
preceding him; and yet again, his fancy, running
ing solitary In the low sunshine, with the spar
rows hopping on the threshold, and the dead man
within staring at the roof-and now, with sud-
den change, thronged about with white-faced,
manipulating neighbors, the doctor bursting
through their midst and fixing his stethOscopes he
went, the policeman shaking sagacious head
beside the body. II was TO this he feared that he
was driving; In the midst OF this he saw himself
arrive, heard himself stammer faint expana-
shoulder. Heavens, how he wished he had played
the manlier part; how he despied himself that he
had fed that fatal neighborhoOd when all was
quiet, and should now be tamely travelling back
when it was thronging with avengers!
Any strong degree OF passion lends, even to the
me M & o wS Sae wa AaE so
him at the end OF this dstreSsful drive-JOhn. who
saw things little, remembered them less, and could
not have described them at all, behed in his minds
eye the garden Of the Lodge, detailed as in map;
he went TO and fro In II, feeding his terrors; he
saw the hollies, the snowy borders, the paths
where he had sought Alan, the high conventual
walls, the shut dOOr-whatl was the door shutf
Ay, truly, he had shut it-Shut in his money, his
escape, his future life-shut 1t with these hands,
and none could now open it! He heard the snap
OF the spring-lock like something bursting In his
brain, and sat astoniShed.
And then he woke again, terror Earring through
his Vtals. This was no time to be idle; he must
be up and doing, he must think. once at the end
OF this ridiculous cruise once at the lodge door,
there would be nothing for1t but to turn the cab
and trundle back again. Why, then, go so far?
Why add another feature OF suspicion TO q case al
ready so suggestive7 Why not turn at once? IL
was easy TO say turn, but whittier? lie had no.
where now to go 10. He could never-he saw 1t in
letters Of biood-he could never pay that cab; he
was saddled with that cab forever. Q, that cab!
His soul yearned and burned, and his bowels
sounded TO be nd OF It. He forgot all other cares
He must first quit himself OF this tll-sinelling ve
hicle and OF the human beast that guided thirst
do that; do that at least: do 1t at once.
And just then the cab suddenly stopped, and
there was his prosecutor rapping on the front
John let IT down and beheld the port-w1ne cOunte-
nance intamed with Intellectual triumph.
81 ken wha ye are," cried the husky voice. 81
mind ye now. You're a nicholson. j drove ye to
Hermiston to Christmas party, and We came back
on the box, and let ye drive"
II was a fact. John knew the man; they had
been even friends. His enemy, he now remem-
bered, was fellow OF great good-nature-endless
gOod-nature-w1th a boy; why not with man?
Why not appeal TO his better side9 He grasped at
"Great Scott, and so you did," he cried, as II in
transport OF delight his voice sounding false In his
own ears swell, II that's 50, I've something TO say
anyhow"
The driver had nuttered his ticket in the eyes OF
brought TO on the highest and most solitary part
OF the by-road. On the left, row OF feldside
NAKED fallOws, undulating downhiil to the queens
ferry road; In front, CorstOrphine Hill raised its
snow hedabbled, darkllng woods against the sky.
John looked all about him, drinking the clear air
like wine; then his eyes returned TO the caDnan's
face as he sat, not ungieefuily, awaiting Johns
communication, with the air OF one looking TO be
The features OF that face were hard to read
drink had so swollen them, drink had so painted
them In tints that varied from brick-red TO mul-
berry. The small gray eyes blinked the lips moved
with greed; greed was the ruling passion; and
though there was some good nature, some genuine
k1ndliness, true human touch, in the old topper,
other traits OF character lay dormant He sat
there a monument OF guttonOus desire.
but he stood there and uttered nought He sounded
the well OF his courage, and II was dry. He CROPPED
in his treasury OF words, and 1t was vacant. A
devil OF dumoneSS had him by the throat; the
devil OF terror babDled In his ears and suddenly
without word uttered. with no conscious purpose
formed In his win, John whipped about, tumbled
life across the fallows
He had not gone far, he was not past the midst
OF the f1rst held, when his whole brain Numbered
within him, "FOol! You have your watchw The
shock stopped him and he faced once more toward
the cab. The driver was leaning over the wall,
brandishing with his whip, his face empurpled
roaring like q bull. And John had or thought
that he had, lost the chance. No watch would
pacify the mans resentment now; he would cry
for vengeance also John would be under the eve
OF the police; his tale would be unfolded, his Sc
cret discovered, his destiny would close on him
He uttered deep sigh; and just as the cabman,
taking heart OF grace, was beginning at last 20
scale The wall, his deraulting customer fell again
10 running, and disappeared into The farther fields
CHAPTER VIII.
SINGULAR INSTANCE OF THE UTILITY OF PAssKEYs
Where he ran at first, John never very clearly
knew; nor yet how long time elapsed ere he
found himself In the byroad near the lodge or
Raveston, propped against the wall, his lungs
heav1ng like bellows, his legs Ieaden-heavy, his
mind possessed by one sole desire-to lie down
and be unseen. He remembered the thick coverts
around the Quarry-hole pond, an untrodden corner
OF the world where he might surely find conceal
ment Till the night should fall. Thther he passed
down the lane; and when he came there, behold,
he had forgOtton the frost, and the pond was alive
with young people skating, and the pond-side COW
erts were thick with loOkers-On. He looked on
awhile himself. There vas one tall graceful maiden
skating hand In hand with youth, on whom she
bestowed her bright eyes perhaps too patiently:
and IL was strange with what anger John beheld
her. lie could have broken forth In curses: he
could have stood there, like mortified tramp and
shaken his list and vented his gall upon ner BY the
hour-or so he thought and the next moment his
heart bled for the girl "Poor creature it's little
she knows!" he sighed. "Let her enjoy herself
while she cam" But was II possible, when Flora
used TO smile at him on the Braid ponds she could
have looked so fulsome to sick-hearted by
stander7
The thought OF one quarry, in his frozen wits
suggested another, and he plodded on toward
northwest; II was cruel keen; It dried him like
nre, and racked his finger joints. It brought
clouds, TOO, pale, swift, hurryfng clouds, that
blotted heaven and shed gloom upon the earth
He scrambled up among the haZelled rubbish
heaps that surround the cauidron of the quarry,
close along the earth the stones were cutting and
Icy, the bare hazels walled about him; and soon
the air OF the afternoon began TO be vocal With
those strange and dismal harpings that herald
snow Pain AND misery turned In Johns limbs to
narrowing Impotence and blind desire OF Change:
hints abraded him, was almost pleased: now he
would crawl 10 the edge of the huge pit and look
diZZily down. He saw the spiral OF the descending
roadway, the steep crags, the clngtng bushes the
peppering OF snowwreaths, and far down in the
bottom the diminished crane. Here, no doubt.
was away 70 endft. But IT somehow did not take
his fancy.
And suddenly he was aware that he was hungry:
ay, even through the tortures OF the cold even
through the rrosts OF despair, gross, desperate